At least it’s over. That’s the prevailing sentiment among the gluttons for punishment, also known as fans of professional golf.
Money, rules debates, money, bad weather, money and subpar television coverage finally proved that even the greatest game ever invented can have the fun sapped out of it if we try hard enough. It was a good year to be on the course and not online.
Your patience, please, for one final complaint as we turn the page into the new year: All of the bickering has overshadowed some truly great golf that was played during the past 12 months. You may be ready to forget 2023, but the history books will take note of some special performances that occurred this year.
Let's review...
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Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship at Oak Hill. It was his fifth major win and perhaps his most satisfying. The victory moves Koepka past Rory McIlroy as the leading major winner of his generation. Koepka’s play has earned him a place among the all-time greats in golf’s long history. Just 14 men have won more majors than Brooks and only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen can claim more PGA Championship trophies than the three that now sit on Koepka’s mantle.
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Time will tell if Rose Zhang can reach the top shelf of women’s professional golf, but matching her achievements as an amateur will be the stretch target for future generations of girls. Zhang was already the first person - male or female - to ever win a USGA Amateur Championship and then the Junior Amateur. In 2023, she extended her record for most weeks ranked as the No. 1 amateur in the world. For good measure, she added back-to-back NCAA individual titles before finally capping her amateur career with a victory at Augusta National in April. Nine days later, Rose became the first to win their LPGA professional debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951.
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Lilia Vu became the first American woman to win two majors in the same year since Juli Inkster in 1999. Vu’s final round 68 at the Chevron carried her from 11th place to a playoff victory over Angel Yin in the first major of the season. Lilia bookended her win with another at the Women’s Open in August. Vu began the final round at Walton Heath tied for the lead, then used her closing 67 to smother the oxygen from a crowd pulling for hometown favorite Charley Hull.
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Bernhard Langer won the 2023 U.S. Senior Open and in the process, surpassed Hale Irwin for most PGA Tour Champions victories with 46. The win also extended Langer’s record of 12 senior majors and his record as the oldest player (65) to win a senior major.
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The American Solheim Cup team swept a day of foursomes matches for the first time ever. It was the first time any American team went 4-0 in foursomes since the 1997 Walker Cup. Then it was Carlota Ciganda’s turn to make her mark. Ciganda produced several candidates for 2023 Shot Of The Year while going undefeated and leading a European comeback that forced the first tie in Solheim history. Perhaps it’s a good omen that the 2023 event that left players and fans hungriest for a rematch is the one that’s going to be played again in 2024.
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Then it was the European men's turn. They swept the four opening foursomes matches at the Ryder Cup. It was the first time in Ryder Cup history that the Europeans led 4-0 after the opening session. The countdown to the 2025 edition of golf’s most overhyped event started early.
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Ludvig Aberg earned the first PGA Tour University exemption to PGA Tour membership and quickly put it to good use. Aberg won on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour, then played in the Ryder Cup, all in his first five months as a professional. Stay tuned.
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Celine Boutier became the first Frenchwoman to win the Evian. It’s an accomplishment long overdue from a country with a stronger tradition in the game than many might realize.
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Nick Taylor ended more than a century of waiting for golf fans in the Great White North. Taylor birdied the 72nd hole to tie Tommy Fleetwood, then eagled the fourth playoff hole in historic fashion to become the first Canadian-born golfer to win the Canadian Open since Karl Keffer in 1914.
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Nick Dunlap won the U.S. Amateur, joining Tiger Woods as the only men to win a USGA Amateur and Junior Amateur.
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Stewart Hagestad continued to outplay and outlast his competition in mid-am golf. In 2023, Hagestad won his third USGA Mid-Amatuer Championship and played on his fourth winning Walker Cup team. Jay Sigel is the sole American to have played on more American Walker Cup squads in the past 40 years, and only Nathan Smith has won more Mid-Ams.
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Alison Lee rewrote the Ladies European Tour record book when she shot a pair of 61s to begin the event at Riyadh G.C. Her 122 start was six shots lower than the previous LET 36-hole mark. She hung on to win the tournament by eight shots.
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On the PGA Tour, Adam Long found the fairway off the tee with 69 consecutive drives, breaking Brian Claar’s previous record of 59 in a row. Long found the final two fairways in the Shriners, went a perfect 56 for 56 at Diamante, and then added 11 more at Port Royal. An amazing performance if you’re into that kind of thing.
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Also notable was the men’s U.S. Open being played in Los Angeles – the second-largest city in the country – for the first time in 75 years. The women’s U.S. Open was played at Pebble Beach for the first time ever.
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And saving the best for last: We learned in August that an all-time high of 40 million Americans are now participating in the sport of golf, part of a global trend of record interest in the game. Virtually all of this post-pandemic surge is in the growing ranks of girls and women taking up the game. Clearly, the LIV and PGA Tour efforts to grow the game are working.
Fingers crossed we can keep the momentum going into Kapalua and Lancaster and Troon.
Happy New Year. We made it.